The Brick store-chambers of Pithom, the city built by Hebrew bondsmen (looking north)

The location of Pithom was the subject of much discussion among Bible scholars, as it is mentioned in the Bible as one of the cities built by the Israelites for the Egyptian Pharaoh. Its location was determined in 1883 by Édouard Naville. Located southwest of Ismailia in Lower Egypt, the main discoveries here were a number of large honey-combed chambers, which most likely served as granaries for the Egyptian army.

Ramesses

Ramesses mummy

The first attested reference to a person known as Rameses outside of Egyptological circles was in Biblical texts, namely Genesis 47:11, Exodus 1:11 and Numbers 33.3.5.Indeed, over the centuries he has been phonetically referred to as Rhampsintus, Remphus, Rapsaces, Rhamsesis and Rhamses. No matter what the pronunciation attributed to him, Ramesses would go on to rule his beloved Egypt for a total of 67 years, making him one of the most enduring and famous pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian king; the founder of the city of Rameses and of Pithom (comp. Ex. i. 11), who would, consequently, be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. This king, the second of his name (Egyptian, Ra’mes-su; Ra’-mes-es), and the third ruler of the Egyptian dynasty. He reigned for almost sixty-sevenyears. The king was quantitatively the greatest Egyptian builder, and the Ramesseum (called the tomb of Osymandyas by Diodorus, after the second, official name of Rameses II., User-ma’ [t]n-rê’), with its colossal statues, the temples at Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel in Nubia, etc., belongs to the grandest constructions of ancient Egypt; many other monuments, however, were only usurped by this indefatigable builder. The colonization of Goshen and the digging of canals from the Nile to the Bitter Lakes (but hardly to the Red Sea!) formed another great monument of this Pharaoh. His sepulcher is in the valley of the royal tombs at Thebes; his mummy is in the museum of Cairo. THE central figure of Egyptian history has always been, probably always will be, Rameses the Second. He holds this place partly by right, partly by accident. He was born to greatness ; he achieved greatness ; and he had borrowed greatness thrust upon himThat Rameses II was the Pharaoh of the captivity,11 and that Meneptah, his son and successor, was the Pharaoh of the Exodus,12 are now among the accepted presumptions of Egyptological science. The Bible and the monuments confirm each other upon these points, while both are again corroborated by the results of recent geographical and philological research. The “treasure-cities Pithom and Raamses” which the Israelites built for Pharaoh with bricks of their own making, are the Pa-Tum and Pa-Rameses of the inscriptions, and both have recently been identified by M. Naville, in the course of his excavations conducted in 1883 and 1886 for the Egypt Exploration Fund.

One of the “treasure cities” built by the Israelites in their servitude (Ex. i. 11: “Raamses”); the point from which they started on their journey through the wilderness (Ex. xii. 37). Further, the northeast division of Egypt contained a region known as the “land of Rameses” (Gen. xlvii. 11). There the migrating Israelites were settled, “in the land of Goshen” (Gen. xlvi. 34, xlvii. 4, et al.). The addition of the Septuagint to Gen. xlvi. 28—”to the city Heroopolis,” preceding the words “into the land of Goshen”—seems to include the city of Pithom (Heropolis, Heroo[n]polis) in this region, while the passages concerning Rameses as the starting-point of the Exodus extend its boundary so far to the east that “land of Goshen” and “land of Rameses” would seem to be synonymous. The latter name seems to be derived from the famous King Rameses II., who, by digging a canal and founding cities, extended the cultivable land of Goshen, formerly limited to the country at the mouth of the modern Wadi Ṭumilat, over the whole valley to the Bitter Lakes. Less probable is it that the “land of Rameses” is to be limited to that part of the region that was newly colonized by Rameses II.

The city of Rameses betrays its builder and the date of its foundation by its name; from Ex. xii. 37 and Num. xxxiii. 8, 5 it may be concluded that it was situated one day’s journey west of Succoth—the modern Tell al-Maskhutah or its vicinity. Consequently it ought to be not far from the entrance into the Wadi Ṭumilat, near the modern Tell al-Kabir. The inscriptions of Rameses II. mention various colonies—one being called “House of Rameses,” in Nubia, not far from Tanis—but only once such a city in or near Goshen.